OK... I'm needing some help with rendering my animations. I've been rendering them as .MOV files in MPEG-4, but they aren't rendering as sharp as I would like. When rendering, I also get really large file sizes. 100MG+. PLUS, when I import them into Sony Vegas, they render even less sharp.
What do I need to do to keep my rendered animations sharp AND have lower file sizes? Are they ALWAYS large file sizes? What about when I import them into Vegas? How do I keep the quality consistent?
HELP!!!
HELP with rendering needed!
Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger
Re: HELP with rendering needed!
BTW, I always select the render to be the best quality. Again, they always come out really large, and not as good of quality.
Any help/suggestions would be appreciated!
Any help/suggestions would be appreciated!
Re: HELP with rendering needed!
In a professional workflow you render files uncompressed while still exchanging them between programs. Only after editing you'll render final versions with compressions suited to the task.
Most use the PNG or Animation codec for files to be imported into a video editor. Some also use PNG sequences, this only works if your editor is able to make a video from that automatically.
Note that uncompressed files are likely to not play back on a normal computer. For preview purposes, render a small (use the "half dimensions" option) file with mpeg-4 or h.264 compression.
Yes, uncompressed files are big. My last film was 1 minute long and resulted in nearly 10 GB of TIFFs (to be recorded on 35mm film).
Most use the PNG or Animation codec for files to be imported into a video editor. Some also use PNG sequences, this only works if your editor is able to make a video from that automatically.
Note that uncompressed files are likely to not play back on a normal computer. For preview purposes, render a small (use the "half dimensions" option) file with mpeg-4 or h.264 compression.
Yes, uncompressed files are big. My last film was 1 minute long and resulted in nearly 10 GB of TIFFs (to be recorded on 35mm film).
- Squeakydave
- Posts: 328
- Joined: Tue Aug 03, 2004 9:44 pm
- Location: UK - London-ish
- Contact:
Re: HELP with rendering needed!
MPEG-4 files are a compressed format so you will lose some visual quality.
I use Vegas for my editing. My work flow is to render out from AS as a png sequence. Simply import the first frame of the image sequence and tick the box 'Open still image sequence' and Vegas does the rest. That is pretty much the best quality you can get.
Other things to note are that Vegas preview may be set to 'automatic' so it will degrade the visual quality in order to maintain the playback speed if the project is a bit big. It should render fine though.
As masters for animation Mov files saved with the animation codec at 100% is the traditional way to go with myself and animators of my aquaintance. PNG also does the job as noted by Slowtiger.
The problem with Mov files are that they are an Apple format and they seem to be taking all their toys back so are no longer the cross platform solution they once were. Fine if you have a Mac based workflow, but don't work at all if you use AS 64bit on PC.
(My initial experiments with the cineform/gopro codec are looking promising though. It does indeed seem to be visually lossless.)
I hope this help
I use Vegas for my editing. My work flow is to render out from AS as a png sequence. Simply import the first frame of the image sequence and tick the box 'Open still image sequence' and Vegas does the rest. That is pretty much the best quality you can get.
Other things to note are that Vegas preview may be set to 'automatic' so it will degrade the visual quality in order to maintain the playback speed if the project is a bit big. It should render fine though.
As masters for animation Mov files saved with the animation codec at 100% is the traditional way to go with myself and animators of my aquaintance. PNG also does the job as noted by Slowtiger.
The problem with Mov files are that they are an Apple format and they seem to be taking all their toys back so are no longer the cross platform solution they once were. Fine if you have a Mac based workflow, but don't work at all if you use AS 64bit on PC.

I hope this help
Re: HELP with rendering needed!
Thanks for the help guys! It's much appreciated!